Barney's Wall

What defines a rebel? This 78-minute documentary delves into the psyche of Barney Rosset, the infamous publisher and ardent free-speech advocate whose mid-century legal and cultural battles shattered sexual and political taboos across the United States—igniting the rise of the 1960s counterculture and guiding millions of young intellectuals toward the era’s most radical currents in literature, film, theater, and politics. In his eighties, as he came to terms with his life, Rosset began to obsessively create an autobiographical 15' x 22' surreal wall mural, woven with jewel-like vignettes formed from found objects, each offering a clue to the conflicts and obsessions that fueled his lifelong rebellion against authority. A cast of artists, a neurologist, and a shaman assemble the clues to reconstruct Rosset’s story.